DIY: Christmas bulb wreath

Every once in a blue moon, I find myself in a crafty mood. Sometimes that ambition fizzles out and I end up with a lot of craft material, as evidenced by the half-completed rug that I was — and still am — trying to crochet. But sometimes I actually complete the craft and find myself very proud of my new creation.

A couple weekends ago, I was on a mission. I needed to finally complete the Christmas bulb wreath that I had been waiting for the perfect time to make … or just procrastinating. No matter what the reasoning was behind it, I have now added the wreath to my list of completed crafts.

To make your own Christmas bulb wreath, you will need:

roughly 80 Christmas bulbs, plastic or glass

one thin wire hanger

ribbon or garland

any sort of Christmassy decorations

hot glue gun and glue sticks

Directions:
1. First, you will need to untwist the wire hanger so that you are able to string the bulbs. (Make sure you choose a thin wire hanger because it will be easier to secure back together when you are finished adding the bulbs.) *Note, you do not need to take the kinks out of the untwisted wire, the bulb will spin around twisted top. * Next, shape the wire into a circle. It does not need to be a perfect circle because once the bulbs are on the wire, you will not notice that it isn’t a perfect circle.

2. There are two ways that you can secure your hanger back together once you have put your bulbs on. You can either twist the wires back together or bend one side of the hanger to create a hook. I chose to make a hook with the end of the wire because the wire that I was using was thicker than I needed. If you plan to twist the wire together, then you will want to do this step after completing Step 4. If you want to make the small hook, I would advise making the hook before putting on the bulbs. I unfortunately didn’t think to make the hook before putting my bulbs on the hanger and seemed to have a more difficult time making it while trying to keep from breaking the bulbs.

Photo by Kimberly Curran

3. I decided to use plastic red and silver Christmas bulbs that I found on sale after Christmas last year. You could also find bulbs at any Goodwill store near you if you, like me, don’t want to pay full price for Christmas bulbs. You will want to hot glue the top of the bulb to reduce the chances of the bulb popping of the wreath when you are stringing it on. Simply place one layer of hot glue around the bulbs hanger. Wait until the glue is completely dry before continuing to the next step.

Photo by Kimberly Curran

4. Once the glue is dry on the bulbs, you can start putting the bulbs onto the hanger. There is no rhyme, nor reason, to what order you want to place your bulbs. I chose to put three red bulbs and then three silver ones so that I could achieve the varied look. It is helpful to have another set of hands to help you with this part in order to keep everything in place. Add as many bulbs as you can to the hanger while also making sure that you have enough room at the top to secure the hanger back together.

5. Once you have all the bulbs on the hanger, simply hook the ends of the hanger back together. You may want to secure some of the bulbs by gluing them together to keep them from shifting too much. A few of my bulbs kept falling off so I needed to hot glue them onto the wire so that they would stay in place.

Photo by Kimberly Curran

6. Next, take your ribbon and/or garland and weave it into the wreath to fill up the empty spaces between the bulbs. I also found some wire garland that had small green and red beads on it to use as space filler. Once you have placed your ribbon and/or garland on the wreath, I would recommend securing those also with hot glue. There is a good chance that the ribbon and/or garland will fall off if it is not secured, especially while it is being stored between Christmas seasons.

The great thing about this craft is that you can reuse old Christmas decorations in order to make a new one!

I enjoyed seeing your wreath master piece. I thought the colors of the bulbs you chose was elegant and different from the traditional Christmas colors. The ribbon you used struck me as stunning and I was impressed how you professionally wrapped the ribbon around the bulbs with out it looking messy or childish. Great completed project.

[…] Staff Q&As: Meet editorial assistant Kim Curran Posted on February 25, 2013 by Sarah Chain TweetTo help you get to know our newsroom staff a bit better, a series of question-and-answer posts with each journalist will run on Mondays. This morning, meet editorial assistant Kim Curran. She processes some of the photos and text that appear in Neighbors and the Weekly Record. You might have seen her crafty posts on Smart. […]